It’s barely three days into the epic Transatlantic race, the Route Du Rhum and already 17 of the 91 entrants have abandoned their race.

The Atlantic isn’t being very hospitable for the solo sailors, with winds hovering around the 35 knot mark and seas tall enough to make even the most battle hardened sailors weak at the knees. There’s been lightning strikes, lost masts, snapped keels, cargo ship collisions and twisted ankles. Sailors are lacking sleep and exhausted, but for them, this is sailing, and they’re having the time of their lives. Well, at least those who are still racing are!

Things are calming down now, with winds subsiding and the front runners in the huge 70ft Trimarans reaching the steady trades off the coast of Europe. Those at the back of the pack, in the (what is considered tiny in this race) 40ft’ers are copping another low pressure system, which will soon pass and leave favorable conditions behind.

So what is all this racing about? The Route Du Rhum is a single handed race from Saint Malo in France to Guadeloupe, a small island in South America. Held every four years, Sailors armed with some of the most high-tech yachts in the world, race flat out across the Atlantic in as little as seven days. This year marks the 10th race of the Route Du Rhum, with the first race being held in 1978.

Most notable in the past days racing, is Pierre Antoine’s Multi50 Olmix, which copped a lightning strike to the mast and requires Pierre to be airlifted off the yacht 120 nautical miles off Cape Finiserre.

“The lightning struck the top of the mast,” Antoine said. “I later found the bulb from the masthead down on the ground. It came down through the mast right to the bottom. The boat is made of wood so it left a hole in the wood and right through the electrical cables, which had caught fire. I thought first of all it was just a light, so I tried to put it out with the extinguisher, as I didn’t think there was any hole. When I went inside the boat, there was already 50 cm of water and she was beginning to go bow down. After that, the water just kept rising. I found bits of wood floating around. It’s the sort of thing that never happens. It’s crazy. Luckily I wasn’t inside the boat, seeing it had burnt everywhere. I could have been sitting in front of the computer. I can’t imagine what would have happened… the screens exploded and everything turned to dust.”

Sound like your kind of racing? Follow the yachts progress on the Route Du Rhum’s website here.

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